Who To Like At Erin Hills?

Jason Logan

Jason Logan

Bits
Every Sunday we send out a tweet from the SCOREGolf account acknowledging the week’s top Canadian performances from tours around the world, limited, for space reasons, to top 10s. It’s cool that some weeks it’s very difficult to squeeze them all into 140 characters ×× One of those top 10s last week belonged to David Hearn, who finished T10 at the FedEx St. Jude Classic in Memphis. Undergoing swing changes this year with new coach Jeff Leishman — a Canadian who also works with St. Jude winner Daniel Berger — Hearn has had a rough season so far and sits 133rd on the FedEx Cup ranking (up from 156th before Memphis.) Hopefully this is a sign of things to come for Hearn with just eight non-major, non-WGC tournaments remaining on the regular-season schedule ×× Both Brooke Henderson and Alena Sharp were close to top-10 results at the Manulife LPGA Classic in Cambridge, Ont., with Henderson finishing T11 and Sharp T15. I’m sure Sharp is disappointed with her weekend rounds of 70-76 after sharing the 36-hole lead, but it’s clear she’s now comfortable playing on home soil after many years of disappointments. Evidence: a solo fourth last year in Calgary at the CP Women’s Open and now this solid finish 40 minutes from where she grew up ×× Big props to Canadian Brittany Marchand. The Symetra Tour member was done in by a final-round 81 at the Manulife but to be inside the top 10 through 54 holes should be huge for her confidence going forward.

Bites
The Manulife field wasn’t exactly star-studded with big names such as Lydia Ko, So Yeon Ryu, Michelle Wie, Stacey Lewis, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Cristie Kerr and Brittany Lincicome missing in action. However getting a three-way playoff among three of the top-five players in the world — winner and new No. 1 Ariya Jutanugarn, No. 4 Lexi Thompson and No. 5 In Gee Chun — was a nice way for the tournament to go out ×× Wonder if Manulife would have reversed its decision and opted for one more tournament if a Canadian had won ×× Jutanugarn sure loves playing in Canada. The reigning CP Women’s Open champion, and now the final Manulife LPGA Classic winner, also captured the 2012 Canadian Women’s Amateur in Lethbridge, Alta., by five shots over her sister Moriya ×× Both Jutanugarns, by the way, are coached by London, Ont.-based PGA of Canada pro Gareth Raflewski, a native of Ireland. They were two of 12 players in the Manulife field with whom Raflewski works ×× I think tour caddies should be encouraged to position golf bags so that the player’s name on the bag is facing out towards spectators when they’re on the range. Universally, caddies do the opposite. Surprisingly, not every event uses name placards to identify the players and this would help fans who may be wondering exactly who they are watching ×× The PGA Championship of Canada, featuring 42 of the top-50 PGA of Canada professionals in the country, takes place this week at Deer Ridge GC in Kitchener, Ont., a nice follow-up to the Manulife for golf fans in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge area. A stroke-play-cut-down-to-match-play event, Deer Ridge’s final three holes will definitely provide some mano-a-mano fireworks.

Barbs
This U.S. Open always brings mixed emotions. On one hand, I’m not one of those golf fans who takes delight in seeing the best players in the world get the crap beat out of them. As I’ve written before, it’s like watching the NHL players skate through slush — you know, like some of those outdoor debacles. On the other hand, I do like that the winner is very often the week’s best ball-striker, not just the best putter, and I expect that to be the case at Erin Hills. I played the course several years ago, and though it’s since undergone a number of modifications I can attest to the epic scale of the property and wonderful routing. I had also played Chambers Bay prior to the 2015 U.S. Open and, except for the vistas, Erin Hills is a far superior golf course in my opinion. Photos emerging of the fescue rough at Erin Hills look ridiculous, but the course features wider fairways than other U.S. Open venues, which will reward the smart and accurate driver of the golf ball. With these facts stated, I find it hard to opt for anyone else but Dustin Johnson to win, who is defending the title he captured last year at the tree-less Oakmont, which does have some similarities to Erin Hills. So I’ll take DJ over Rickie Fowler and Masters champ Sergio Garcia with a dark horse pick of Shane Lowry, who was T2 at Oakmont. Let’s just hope this edition of golf’s toughest test is fiasco free.

Obscure thought of the week: It’s official: Canadian society has reached a point in which it’s now acceptable to bring a Tim Hortons coffee absolutely anywhere.